A truck driver who backed a campaign for laws to be changed to introduce tougher sentences for dangerous motorists has been caught driving dangerously while over the drink-drive limit.

James Meadowcroft, 28, joined a petition on Facebook and wrote a scathing comment on the British justice system after another motorist was handed a six year prison term for a high speed smash which left a man dead.

But two years down the line, Meadowcroft himself was hauled before the same court which jailed killer driver Addil Haroon after police arrested Meadowcroft for getting tanked up at the wheel and leading officers on a high-speed pursuit.

James Meadowcroft

He sparked the chase in July when he continuously pressed on the horn of his Ford Mondeo car at 4am within earshot of police dealing with an unrelated incident. When the officer went over to speak to Meadowcroft, he swerved around the officer and drove off and started speeding at up to 75mph in a 30mph zone.

Meadowcroft took four blind junctions ‘at speed’ and overtook a stationary vehicle waiting at a red light before ploughing into a traffic light, the court heard. When police arrested him at the scene, the reckless driver was heard to be slurring his words and was later found to be one and a half times the legal limit.

At Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Meadowcroft, from Radcliffe, admitted dangerous driving and drink driving but was given a suspended sentence by a judge who warned him he was ‘lucky’ nobody was killed.

James Meadowcroft's Facebook post

Meadowcroft had taken to Facebook in 2015 after Haroon was jailed for dangerous driving for killing another driver whilst speeding at 80mph in his Audi A6 hire car on a residential street in Rochdale.

He called on others to sign a petition on Change.org website to increase sentences for reckless and dangerous driving and raged: “He was bragging about the speeds he’d been driving out so make an example of him and stop making the CPS and justice system the laughing stock!!!”

But Meadowcroft himself came to the attention of police over his shameful driving on July 22 at 4.25am when officers were at an address dealing with an unrelated domestic violence incident.

James Meadowcroft

After he was caught and arrested, tests showed Meadowcroft had 54 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

His lawyer John Marsh said: “He was acting as a carer for his friend for seven years and when he passed away there was a big void in his life. He has a bad relationship with alcohol and has to been to see a GP who has put him in touch with a community alcohol team.

“He is not a traditionally irresponsible man and this has been a wake up call. He accepts this was a dangerous piece of driving.”

Meadowcroft was given six months jail suspended for 15 months, was banned from driving for a year and was ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work.

James Meadowcroft

The judge Mr Recorder Geoffrey Lowe said: “You drove the car so dangerously that officers felt there was a safety fear to you, and more importantly others. In a built up area you drove at 75mph - anything could have happened and it is only by good fortune that something more serious didn’t happen.

“Because of the nature of your driving you lost control and you were lucky because you were the person most at risk. This is a case that does cross the custody threshold but I am told you are receiving medical help for depression.

“The amount of alcohol you drink is eye-watering and you clearly have a problem. Clearly it seems to me that alcohol has begun this offending behaviour. You are still a young man and it seems to me this must be met with a custodial sentence but the public interest to me is for you to seek help for these underlying problems.”